The Pulpit Commentary — Esther — Section 122

compen~ation for it. And lastly arrfres on the scene the form of Divine retribution. Of the~e four there can he no doubt which was the dominant fact. The rest were accurately ti~ed to_ it. One _led the way; the rest were irresistibly, if unconsciously, nttracted to !t. This verse gwes us what purports to be n ~tatement or description of a "tho'.:ght 1:1 the heart." It may be called the natural history of a "thoug·ht in the heart ; not, mdeed, of any or every su-::h thought, but of one that once literally was, and which may have had many like it. We may notice- I. ON 'WHAT AUTHORITY THIS DESCRIPTION RESTS. For the history is not of a flattering kind. In all its brevity it is of an exceedingly cutting nature. It is of the nature of a stricture. and a severe one. It is a keen incisive thrust into an individual character. In every such case it behoves us to be more than ever careful "not to judge, lest we he judged," and to scrutinise narrowly the authority on which they speak when others pronounce judgment in our hearing. For if the judgment of what is in the depth of another's heart be not absolutely true, it is essentially unjust and uncharitable. Our own superficial criticisms often err. They carry on their face their condemnation, and but for this would be more reprehensible and more disas- trous than they are. But what we have before us is no superficial critique, it is the pronouncement of the authoritative Spirit of all truth himself. The scalpel of the inspired anatomist cuts deep, and as trenchantly as deep. We are glad to recollect whose is the responsibility; and when we recollect we think with firmer thought and tread with surer step. II. WHAT WAS THE NATURE OF THE THOUGHT IT REVEALED. It was a thought of se'lf, and of what was supposed to be self's glory and advancement. There are times for all when it is right and needful to think of self, and to act for what shall seem, on the whole, the best for self. There are other times when it is the greatest mistake to think of self. The occasion in question was one of this kind. It is an occasion in itself far from destitute of its own proper honour. 1. Haman is called in as a counsellor, and a counsellor of his king. 2. He is appealed to for something beyond ad,ice. With him lies the determining of a certain case laid before him. To be the dispenser of dignities and rewards is to sit upon a throne very near royalty itself. 3. The occasion is not a mere formality, to be guided only by precedents, and requiring a musty search to find them. 4. The recipient of the distinction, whoever he might be, would also be ever beholden in some sort to the word that should drop from Haman's lip. The occasion, therefore, was one which especially begged for a single eye, a clear judgment, transparency of motive. But, in fact, self blocks up the whole proRpect. The thought in the heart of the king's counsellor at that moment was this: "To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?" Among all unjust and partial judges, was there ever any more unjust? Ill. WHAT WERE SOME OF THE MORE CONDEMNING OR AGGRAVATING SYMPTOMS OF THE THOUGHT ITSELF. 1. It was not only self, but self in the shape of insufferable vanity. It mounted to the pitch of morbid vanity. Some are hurried on by selfish- ness headlong. But it is a sleek, a smiling, a self-garlanded victim we have here. To the dignity of position already belonging to him fuller gratification ( as has been seen) is offered; but it is not honour _that his eye can_ s_ee, tha~ hie m0d ea~ app_re- ciate. The grace and the force of his honoured poa1tion weigh nothmg W1th him. Bnt the most egotistic vanity shuts out, and at a most critical moment, the very idea of the barest possibility of a worthy competitor with himself I He cannot credit the notion of a fellow-creature to compare Wlth himself. Alas, from " flattering lips and double tongue " he had neither prayed nor striven to be saved ; but least of all from those flattering lips, above all measure the worst, which first belong to self and then flatter the vanity of 11elf. 2. It was not only self, but self in the shape of an un- chastised, unmortified haughtiness of heart. How exquisitely beautiful the reverse of this. How plaintive the honest and deeply-felt disowning of it: "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty : neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of hie mother: my soul is even as a weaned child " (Pa. cx:xxi. 1, 2). Tum from David in this psalm to Haman, and how is one revolted I The thoughts of yesterday afternoon and last night, which saw such an amazing fitness in a "gallows fifty cubits high" for the obscure and sorrowful and stung man Mordecai, OIT. VI. 1-14.] THE BOOK OF ESTHER. 127